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Jefferson Parish man stands trial for murder of 8-month-old boy

Arnold-Ross-mug.jpg

Arnold Ross, pictured above at age 17, is now 21 and is standing trial this week on charges of second-degree murder and aggravated rape. The victim was 8-month-old Da-Von Lonzo, who died three years ago this month in the Gretna area.
(JPSO)

Arnold Ross only was supposed to watch 8-month-old Da-Von Lonzo for about an hour, until his older sister showed up at the Terrytown apartment to take over the babysitting duties while the baby's mother was at work. But in that brief amount of time, Da-Von was beaten so severely that only two of his ribs were left unbroken, his rectum torn because Ross, then 17, wrapped a towel around three fingers and inserted them, thinking he would stop the baby's defecation, a Jefferson Parish prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.

"He beat an 8-month-old baby to death for a dirty diaper," Assistant District Attorney Clif Milner told a jury in opening statements. "The evidence will show injuries that occurred over and over and over again on an 8-month-old baby's head and torso."

Ross, 21, who now stands 6 feet, 7 inches tall and weighs over 200 lbs., is on trial this week on charges of second-degree murder and sexual battery in the June 6, 2009 homicide. Ross initially blamed it on a fall down the stairs at 5616 Gary Court, but allegedly confessed later to inflicting the injuries while disciplining the 8-month-old, Milner said. Questions of Ross's mental state have been raised since he was indicted.

Ross's attorney, Letita Parker-Davis, acknowledged that Ross killed the baby but said he had no intent to do so. "Arnold has no social skills, and he could not take care of a child," Parker-Davis told the jury in opening statements.

She deflected blame to Da-Von's mother, Damyra Lonzo, an ex-con who had left her baby with Ross's family so often that they thought of the boy as their own. "It became the family joke," Parker-Davis said in opening statements.

The public defender also said that Ross's family warned Lonzo "repeatedly, over and over and over" to not let Ross watch the child, because he had no experience in handling babies. She also claimed that Lonzo, who was 34 when her baby died, had taken the juvenile Ross as a lover - a claim Lonzo denied.

Ross could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted of the murder charge. But because Ross was 17 at the time he allegedly committed the crimes, the sentences he could receive cannot be mandatory, under a pair U.S. Supreme Court decisions dealing with punishment for juvenile offenders.

Milner, who is prosecuting Ross with Assistant District Attorney Megan Gorman, said Lonzo was living "a hard life," having been released from prison on parole months earlier for a conviction of possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

She had moved into the Gary Court apartment about a month earlier and had a job at a fried chicken restaurant in Harvey. She said she was trying to turn her life around, so that she could regain custody of her two older children, a son who had been in foster care and a daughter who lived with her father.

Neither she nor the prosecutors said who fathered Da-Von or explain the timing of her conceiving with her imprisonment.

On the morning her son died, Lonzo said she faced the hour-long walk through Gretna to her job as a prep cook at a fried chicken restaurant on Manhattan Boulevard in Harvey. Ross's older sister was supposed to watch Da-Von that day, but she was late. Ross agreed to watch the baby.

So before she left, Lonzo said she changed Da-Von's onesie, prepared a bottle and packed a day bag for Ross's sister, who would take the baby to her home. Ross's mother also cared for the baby, Lonzo testified.

"She treated him like that was her child, her grandchild," Lonzo testified. "That's how she treated my baby."

About 1½ hours after she left home that morning, Lonzo said she received a call at work from a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office deputy, who told her something had happened to her son. A deputy retrieved her and drove her to her apartment, he testified. By then, Da-Von had already been taken to a hospital, she said. Ross tried to leave the apartment, but he was not allowed to speak with her.

She never saw her son alive again. "I couldn't believe he died from falling down stairs," Lonzo testified.

The jury, which was seated Tuesday, is expected deliberate later this week. Judge Michael Mentz of the 24th Judicial District Court is presiding over the trial.

NOTE: Ross was indicted on a charge of sexual battery, not aggravated rape as was initially reported in this story. The story has been changed to reflect the change.